© Hiroshi Watanabe. Above: Marina Ema & Kazusa Ito, Matsuo Kabuki, 2003. 10×10 inch gelatin silver print.

Panopticon Gallery’s newest exhibition, Kids Are People Too, celebrates children in photography as explored through the vision of sixteen photographers, from the well known to the emerging contemporary artist. Inspired by Jason Landry’s own memories of youth, the gallery owner and curator, says, “When I was a boy there was a TV show called, Kids Are People Too. It was like a talk show for kids: a Sunday morning variety show.  My fondest memory of that show was the time that they had my favorite rock band on, KISS. Isn’t it interesting that some childhood memories are quite vivid, while others are long forgotten?” The exhibition is on view from June 8, 2011 until July 12, 2011.

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© Roger Farrington/Panopticon Gallery. John Lennon ‘rockin’ out’, 1980.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the passing of John Lennon. It was in August of 1980 that Boston-based photographer Roger Farrington got the job as the first authorized photographer to document the initial recording session for what would be Lennon and Ono’s final album together, Double Fantasy. Farrington says, “When I heard the album months later, the song “(Just Like) Starting Over” reminded me of how I felt that first day in the recording studio with John & Yoko.  That’s what they were doing.  That’s where all the excitement, energy, and tension came from.  Ironically, “(Just Like) Starting Over” was the song they recorded on the first day.  It will always mean a lot to me.”

Farrington’s images from this session are published in Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy by Ken Sharp. In conjunction with the book release is an exhibit at Panopticon Gallery in Boston through January 4, 2011. Sharp and Farrington will be signing copies of the book in New York today, for more information click here.

© Keith Johnson/Panopticon Gallery. Above: Mac Music, Chicago, IL, 2010

Keith Johnson received his MFA from RISD studying with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind following a year at Visual Studies Workshop with Nathan Lyons. He supports his fine art making as a consultant in the northeast and is on the summer faculty at CPW, Penland School of Crafts, VSW, Maine Media Workshop, and Jackson Hole Art Association. To see more of Johnson’s work click here.

© Fondazione Sella. Courtesy Panopticon Gallery/Decaneas Archive, Boston, MA.

Pictured here is Vittorio Sella on the Highest Peak of the Rouies as seen from the Chardon Glacier, August 3, 1888. Vittorio Sella’s home was in Biella, Italy – he began his career in 1879, climbing and photographing the nearby Alps with his 11×14 large-format field camera and wet plate collodion glass negatives. The great Italian photographer passed away on this day, August 12, in 1943.

The exhibit, Heights of Observation: The Photographs of Vittorio Sella (1859 – 1943), will open on September 9 and run though November 8 at the Panopticon Gallery.

More from the gallery here.